iBeacon

Updated: 1 year ago

In Short

iBeacon is an indoor positioning system — think GPS, but inside buildings, stores, parks, etc. — that are designed to be low cost and ultra-low power and work with iOS 7) devices to provide directional, informational, and other services. Tied into Apple's existing Location Services like GPS, Wi-Fi mapping, and cell tower triangulation, iBeacon can detect when you approach or leave, and estimate your proximity. It can also be disabled in Settings: Privacy should you not want to make use of it.

iBeacon is an indoor positioning system — think GPS, but inside buildings, stores, parks, etc. — that are designed to be low cost and ultra-low power and work with iOS 7) devices to provide directional, informational, and other services. Tied into Apple's existing Location Services like GPS, Wi-Fi mapping, and cell tower triangulation, iBeacon can detect when you approach or leave, and estimate your proximity. It can also be disabled in Settings: Privacy should you not want to make use of it.

Examples of potential iBeacon services include describing products to shoppers on shelves, or alerting them to deals via push notification, guiding a hiker through a mountain trail, even if they have little or no vision, or helping a visitor find parking and get to the right office for a scheduled meeting. iBeacons are currently deployed in U.S. retail stores, as well as sports facilities and grocery stores.

10 December 2013 24By Rene RitchieWhen Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone in 2007 he spent some time talking about its sensors — the capacitive multitouch sensors in the screen that let you use your bioelectric finger as the best pointing device ever, the accelerometer that enabled the interface to rotate with the phone, the ambient light sensor that adjusted brightness to fit the environment, and the proximity sensor that turned off the screen and capacitance to save power and avoid accidental touch events when the phone was held up to a face. Over the course of the next year, Jobs also introduced Wi-Fi mapping and then GPS so the iPhone could chart its location, and later still, a magnometer and gyroscope so it could understand direction, angle, and rotation around gravity. From the very beginning, the iPhone was aware.

05 August 2015 7By Joseph KellerTarget has started rolling out a new beacon-powered program in select stores that offer deals and recommendations to users of the retailer's iPhone app based on their in-store location.

03 March 2015By John CallahamThe South By Southwest (SXSW) festival will once again be using iBeacons during the popular event in Austin, Texas, Attendees will be able to interact with the iBeacons through the newly updated and official SXSW Go app....

02 January 2015By Joseph KellerThe FCC has published a number of documents with details on an unreleased Apple-produced piece of iBeacon hardware. Some documents for this hardware were spotted last summer, but today's release includes the user manual...

18 December 2014 6By Chuong H NguyenMcDonald's trial with beacons in Columbus, GA to guide customers to its stores is a success. The company announced that using Bluetooth LE and an app developed by beacons supplier Piper, it was able to increase sales of McNuggets by roughly 8 percent in the store...

07 September 2014 11By Joseph KellerApple appears to be upgrading the iBeacon receivers in it's retail stores ahead of the expected launch of the iPhone 6. The new beacons will make location tracking within Apple's stores more accurate...

13 July 2014By Rich EdmondsWe've covered some pretty cool uses of the iBeacon technology from Apple, but the product itself is still not available for the general public. Now, a new filing has spotted for an iBeacon device through FCC, attached to the product numbe A1573...

16 June 2014 7By Derek KesslerIt turns out that getting iBeacon-triggered notifications really does help to increase user engagement. That's the judgement of inMarket, a firm that's been installing iBeacons in grocery stores across the nation...

28 April 2014 7By Simon SageEyewear maker Tzukuri has announced that they'll be kicking off a crowdfunding campaign for Bluetooth-enabled shades with full iBeacon support. That way you'll get a ping on your iPhone when you forget your fancy glasses behind...

16 April 2014 2By Derek KesslerThere are a few solutions for deploying iBeacons in a venue, but Texas Instruments is striving to make it even easier with their newly updated SimpleLink SensorTag and reference designs for the Bluetooth beacons...